The Narrator
Both the movie and the book are told from the perspective of the protagonist main character, called The Narrator in the movie script. The Narrator is meant to represent the average "Everyman" of modern society. When the story begins, he is a recall coordinator for a major car company (shown to be named "Federated Motor Corporation" in the film). The Narrator starts out suffering from chronic insomnia, causing him to slog through life in a flat, half-asleep state of depression. He finds temporary relief by attending various support groups under false pretenses; but when this stops working (thanks to Marla Singer) his insomnia returns with a vengeance. It's shortly after this when he meets/manifests Tyler Durden, and his average, boring life is turned upside down. The Narrator's Name The name of the Narrator is never actually revealed in either the novel or the film, but is often cited as being either "Jack" or "Joe." This is due to the Narrator's reading of a series of Reader's Digest articles in which human organs describe their functions to the reader in the first person, referring to themselves as Joe's in the novel, and Jack's in the film. The Narrator later begins to describe his own emotions using the same format. *Book passage example: "I am Joe's Blood-Boiling rage." *Film line example: "I am Jack's smirking revenge." ''Support Group Aliases'' In the film, The Narrator uses several false names when he participates in the support groups. Partial list of aliases: *''Cornelius ''- used in the testicular cancer group where he met Bob. Note: As of Feb 2014, this appears to be the narrator's real name (see next section). *''Rupert'' - used in the cancer group frequented by Chloe. *''Lenny'' *''Travis'' *''Mr. Taylor'' - used when confronted by Marla Singer. ''In Fight Club Sequel'' In a July 2013 interview about the upcoming Fight Club 2 graphic novel, Chuck Palahniuk specifially referred to The Narrator as "Jack": "Nowadays, Tyler is telling the story, lurking inside Jack, and ready to launch a comeback. Jack is oblivious. Marla is bored. Their marriage has run aground on the rocky coastline of middle-aged suburban boredom. It's only when their little boy disappears, kidnapped by Tyler, that Jack is dragged back into the world of Mayhem." The Narrator is also directly called "Jack" in some places (but not others) on Palahniuk's official website. However, in a February 2014 Hustler interview, Palahniuk stated: "The sequel will be told from the-- at first-- submerged perspective of Tyler Durden as he observes the day-to-day tedium of the narrator's life. Because 20th Century-Fox created the convention of calling the protagonist Jack, I'm calling him Cornelius." Based on this, it now appears that The Narrator's real name is officially Cornelius, the name he used at his first support group. If so, this entry will be updated accordingly once the sequel is released. Memorable Quotes *"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time." *"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." *"Tyler sold his soap to department stores at $20 a bar. Lord knows what they charged. It was beautiful. We were selling rich women their own fat asses back to them." *(to Tyler, while looking at a Gucci ad on the bus) "Is that what a man looks like?" *(while being embraced by Bob at the testicular cancer therapy session) "Strangers with this kind of honesty make me go a big rubbery one." *"A guy who came to Fight Club for the first time, his ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, he was carved out of wood." *"I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid. Then I ran some more." *"If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?" *"And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom." Category:Characters